Tag Archive | "China"

First Solar Inc. won’t be building the world’s largest solar plant in China after more than four years of negotiations on pricing failed to produce an agreement.

First Solar had planned to build the 2,000-megawatt Ordos project in Inner Mongolia and sell the output to China’s power grid. Terms for selling the power were never agreed to, said Steve Krum, a spokesman for Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar.

“Due to the market environment, we aren’t going to pursue the Ordos project further,” Krum said today in an interview. The plant was never included in the company’s pipeline of contracted projects, he said.

Ordos was First Solar’s first foray into China, the world’s largest producer of both solar panels and greenhouse gases. First Solar agreed to build the project and consider opening a manufacturing plant in the region in a memorandum of understanding with Chinese officials on Sept. 8, 2009.

IBM has launched a new project, known as Green Horizon, aimed to help China deliver on ambitious energy and environmental goals.

IBM’s China Research laboratory-led ten-year initiative, which will support China in transforming its national energy systems, sets out to leap beyond current global practices in air quality management, renewable energy forecasting and energy optimisation for industry.

The Beijing Municipal Government has signed collaboration agreement with IBM to work together to develop solutions, which can help tackle the city’s air pollution challenges.

In order to improve air quality, Beijing will invest more than $160bn to deliver on its target of reducing harmful fine Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) particles by 25% by 2017.

IBM and the Beijing Municipal Government will support the initiative by developing a system that will enable authorities to pinpoint the type, source and level of emissions and predict air quality in the city.

“Science-based decision support systems, combined with sophisticated data analysis is exactly what the Chinese government needs.”

Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy energy and climate program resident scholar Tao Wang said, “Science-based decision support systems, combined with sophisticated data analysis is exactly what the Chinese government needs to address the country’s energy and environmental issues.”

The government will use the accurate, real-time data about Beijing’s air quality to address environmental issues by adjusting production at specific factories or alerting citizens about developing air quality issues.

The Chinese Government, as part of the transformation of Chinese industry, aims to reduce the country’s carbon intensity by 40 – 45% by the year 2020.

In order to support the goals, IBM will develop a new system to help monitor, manage and optimise the energy consumption of industrial enterprises, which represent more than 70% of China’s total energy consumption.

According to the Global New Energy Development Report 2014, China has surpassed Germany as the world’s largest PV market. The report, which was prepared by Hanergy Holding Group and China New Energy Chamber of Commerce, provided a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the global renewable energy market.

The global PV market saw 38.7 GW of new capacity installed in 2013, bringing the cumulative installed PV capacity to 140.6 GW, the report said. New PV installations in China saw the addition of 12 GW in 2013, up 232 percent year on year, demonstrating that the global PV market has gradually shifted from Europe to Asia.

The global new energy industry experienced sustained growth in 2013, as governments aligned their national energy mix to eliminate pollutants and improve the ecological environment, China New Energy Chamber of Commerce vice president Zeng Shaojun said. Chinese companies will be investing more heavily in technological advances and accelerate their pace of going global, in an effort to increase their shares in the global new energy market, Zeng added.

Since 2012, Chinese regulators have been releasing a series of policies and measures, including the State Council’s Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of the PV industry, significantly propelling the development of the country’s solar power market. As of the end of 2013, China’s grid-connected solar capacity reached 14.79 GW, up 340 percent year on year.

During the previous few years, China’s PV export demand had plunged on weak economic growth in Europe and the U.S., lower subsidies for exports to major European and U.S. markets as well as protectionist policies. However, the PV industry took a favorable turn in 2013 thanks to the country’s optimization of its export structure by shifting to emerging markets. China’s exports of solar cells and modules to Asia surged 124 percent year on year to US $5.5 billion in 2013, accounting for 44.8 percent of the total, while those to Europe fell 62 percent to US $3.72 billion. During that same year, the country exported US $570 million of solar cells and modules to Africa, up 387 percent from the previous year.

In 2013 many industry players, including Ningxia Sunshine Silicon Industry, were forced to declare bankruptcy due to a severe overcapacity in the global PV market. The exit of weaker competitors brought about a higher market concentration, giving an impetus to a new round, yet, more structured development of China’s PV industry.

China’s PV industry is expected to see a continued recovery in 2014, as economies in Europe and the U.S. stabilize and demand from emerging markets increases. The National Energy Administration announced on May 22 that the country aims to add 14 GW of installed PV capacity in 2014, up 24 percent from 2013.

BEIJING — Zhejiang province posted US$340 million in exports of photovoltaic (PV) products for the first quarter of this year, an increase of 18 percent over the same period last year. The rise is primarily attributable to industry expansion into emerging markets. Exports to Japan increased 121 percent year-on-year, while those to ASEAN countries increased 843 percent.

“China’s PV products previously were mainly exported to the U.S. and to European countries, but now exports to emerging markets account for more than 80 percent of the total,” said Shen Fuxin, secretary general of the Zhejiang Solar Energy Industry Association.

Since 2011, EU countries and the U.S. have initiatedanti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations over PV imports from China. Most recently, the EU imposed definitive measures on Chinese solar panels in the form of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties. These duties, ranging from 47.7 percent to 64.9 percent, will be valid for the two years starting 6 December 2013. This lead to dramatic decreases in the level of exports from many Chinese PV companies and was a major factor in Suntech Power’s bankruptcy, a leader in the field.

In order to offset the decrease, the PV industry across Zhejiang province began to expand into new markets while improving product competitiveness through technical innovations.

The more than two years of efforts are paying off. In 2013, the province’s PV industry achieved sales of 70 billion yuan (approx. US$11.2 billion), with Risen Energy, Zhejiang Sunflower Light Energy Science & Technology, ReneSola and JinkoSolar seeing continuous improvement in their competitiveness.

Of the $340 million export number, solar cell exports brought in $290 million, up 23 percent year-on-year, with the top five export destinations being Japan (+121 percent), Taiwan (+31 percent), ASEAN (+823 percent), the U.K. (+497 percent) and South Africa (+600 percent). “Exports to the U.S. and the European continent accounted for only 17 percent of the total,” said Shen.

Solar cell exports via the province’s Ningbo port increased despite the down market, thanks to the expansion efforts. During the first quarter of this year, exports via the port totaled 3.16 million units, valued at 1.67 billion yuan, up 53.7 percent and 13.4 percent from a year earlier, respectively.

Exports to emerging markets demonstrated an outstanding performance, with those to South Korea surging 112 times to 672,000 units, India 58.3 percent to 430,000 units and South Africa 140 times to 396,000 units.

Also dampened by EU tariffs, Ningbo’s solar cell exports to EU countries amounted to only 264,000 units in the first three months of this year, down 74.4 percent over the same period of last year.

While export volume of solar cells increased this year, the average export price dropped 26.2 percent from a year earlier, a source at Ningbo Customs revealed. This was mainly due to the intensifying price war between solar cell makers. It is encouraging that the city of Ningbo has issued new rules whereby the local government provides additional subsidies for qualified PV modules and encourages PV exporters to strengthen development of the domestic market.

Russia-based Gazprom has signed a contract worth $400bn (€292bn) with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) to supply natural gas.

Under the contract, Gazprom will supply 38 billion cubic metres of gas annually to CNPC for a period of 30 years.

The gas will be supplied through a pipeline from Russia to China via the eastern route, which is estimated to start in 2018.

Gazprom will be responsible for gas field development and construction of the gas processing plants and pipeline sections in Russia.

Meanwhile, CNPC will be responsible for the building pipeline sections, gas storages and other supporting facilities in China.

CNPC said that the major gas sources will be Kovyktinskoye in the Irkutsk region and Chayandinskoye in Yakutia.

Gazprom management committee chairman Alexey Miller said Russia and China have signed the biggest contract in the entire history of the USSR and Gazprom – more than 1 trillion cubic meters of gas will be supplied during a whole contractual period.Russian gas will be sold at a brand new market with a huge potential.

Miller said, “The arrangement of Russian pipeline gas supplies is the biggest investment project on a global scale. $55bn will be invested in the construction of production and transmission facilities in Russia.

“An extensive gas infrastructure network will be set up in Russia’s East, which will drive the local economy forward. Great impetus will be given to entire economic sectors, namely metallurgy, pipe and machine building.”

Gazprom and CNPC have signed the agreement that came after more than a decade of negotiations, which were repeatedly stalled over the price.

The contract was signed in the presence of Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping.